Karen Walker Divulges Most Creative Partnership

New Zealand fashion designer Karen Walker, 51, discusses her upbringing, career and the men who have influenced her, with The Sydney Morning Herald.

“My father, Noel, worked in the travel business. He wasn’t interested in my choice to study fashion. He was entrepreneurial, with a big personality. He passed on his love of travel to me,” Walker explains.

“I met my husband, Mikhail Gherman, in a nightclub when I was 18. He was born in the USSR, left as a refugee when he was 12, and went to Rome for a few years before arriving in New Zealand with a love of punk rock.

“I started my fashion label with Mikhail in 1988. [Gherman] and I continue to grow working alongside each other. Though we know one another better than anyone else, sometimes he’ll say things I never knew about him. We push one another into the unknown and it works. It’s never stagnant.”

Walker’s new eyewear collection is out on 1 November.

Original article by Jane Rocca, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 30, 2021.